Page 78 of Hot for the Jerk

I winced a little when the towel was removed and, judging by his face, there was definitely going to be a bruise.Hot tears burned the backs of my eyes and my throat grew tight as I shifted my gaze to my cousins.Jagger put the bag of peas back on my cheek.“He threatened to go to the police,” I whispered, fresh fear rushing icy through my veins.

“He can threaten to blow up the fucking moon.Doesn’t mean it’s going to work,” Naomi said, turning to Gabrielle.“He doesn’t have a leg to stand on, does he?Raina is Marco’s mother.Soloman is his uncle.And a sociopath at that.”

“Nothing can stop him from trying,” Gabrielle said, matter-of-factly.“He can try to paint her out as an unfit mother, petition for custody.We’ll make sure he doesn’t win, but he could make it very ugly.”

“That’s not what he meant,” I whispered, my eyes falling to my cousins again.“He meant about Josiah.”

“He knowsnothing,” Gabrielle bit out.“He might think he does, but he doesn’t.”

“We’ll never let him take Marco,” Danica reassured.

“What if he keeps trying?”I blurted out, removing the bag of peas from my face for a moment as my cheek was starting to get numb.“Should Marco and I just run away?Flee the island?The state?Leave our family and start over—again—this time with new names and identities?That whole lineage of men needs to die before I’ll ever feel safe.”

My three cousins exchanged looks for a hot minute, but Jagger caught it.

He didn’t belong in the dark.Not after what he just witnessed.Not after the way he stepped in to help me.He deserved the truth.I believed I could trust him with it.

“Marco’s safe with you?”I asked Gabrielle.

“Of course.”She nodded.

“What did he mean by he knew how Josiah really died?”Jagger asked, bouncing his gaze between me and my cousins, his brows bunched, eyes forming thin slits.

“Can you guys …” I swallowed.“Can you guys give Jagger and me a few minutes?”

All of their eyes went wide again, but after I made sure they understood that I needed this, they all nodded.

“We’ll be upstairs,” Gabrielle said, before leaning down and whispering in my ear.“You trust him?”

I nodded.“I think I do, yeah.”

She kissed my cheek, ran her hand over my head in a motherly way, then followed Naomi and Danica upstairs.That left me and Jagger.

“I think we might need to take a raincheck on that dinner date,” I said, trying to be lighthearted but failing.“I need to tell you something.”

He took a seat right beside me on the couch, close enough that our knees touched.He didn’t say anything, just waited patiently for me to gather my thoughts, rally my nerves, and pull up my big girl panties.“Our family—and by ‘our,’I mean Gabrielle, Naomi, Danica, and mine—was basically a cult.”

His eyes widened, but other than that, he didn’t react.

“They called it a church, but it wasn’t.It was a fucking cult.All our fathers were brothers.They had one sister—Aunt Dolores—who ran away from the organization when she was twenty-four.She was forced to marry a man over twice her age, and he beat her mercilessly.Caused her to miscarry their baby, and she ran away from the hospital after her D&C.She secretly kept tabs on her nieces as we grew up, and when we were sixteen, with the help of the local librarian she was able to get a message to us and let us know that if we ever wanted out, she’d be there on the outside to support us.Gabrielle was the first to leave.Then Naomi, then Danica, and lastly me.”

I licked my lips and breathed out slowly.Without saying anything, Jagger got up from the couch and I thought for sure he was going to leave.That he was going to say that he didn’t sign up for this dumpster fire, and it was too much for him.But I should have known better.He simply went to the kitchen and got me a glass of water.

“Thank you,” I croaked, taking a big sip.

All he did was nod, allowing me to continue.

“I was Josiah’s third wife, as I told you.His first wife turned out to be barren.Then she mysteriously went missing.”His eyes widened again.“Yeah.We all suspect exactly what you’re thinking.Especially since she wasn’t the first wife in the congregation to justvanishwhen they failed to get pregnant.His second wife just kept miscarrying.They somehow managed to get an annulment there.Then there was me.I gave him his coveted son, after being forced to marry him by my bastard of a father when I was just nineteen years old.I miscarried twice before we conceived Marco.And I’d barely recovered from that birth before he decided he wanted to try again.”

“What do you—”

“Marital rape, Jagger.I was two weeks postpartum, and because the men in our … organization don’t have any fucking education or concept of the female anatomy, he figured I was fertile again the moment Marco was born.And my delivery with Marco was not easy.I lost a lot of blood, needed a transfusion, and hemorrhaged on the table because our ‘organization’”—I used air quotes this time—“prefers home births since doctors and nurses ask too many questions.I nearly died.But none of that mattered to Josiah.I tried saying no.I begged him to let me heal a little longer.But he didn’t care.I was in agony while Marco screamed in the bassinet next to the bed.”I could still remember that moment like it was yesterday.My breasts were hard as rocks, leaking through my nightshirt; my body still bleeding, still stitched up from the traumatic birth, and Josiah climbed on top of me.I cried the entire time, pleaded with him to stop as Marco’s screams just grew louder and louder.

The haunted, horrified look in Jagger’s eyes did nothing to soothe me.It was one of the reasons why I’d never told a soul about any of this before.Only my cousins knew, because they’d all experienced similar things in their marriages.

“Josiah was an angry, miserable man.I hated our life, I hated him, and I did everything I could to keep Marco safe.I taught piano lessons, but otherwise, I wasn’t allowed an education beyond high school, or a job.My soul purpose was to give Josiah as many sons as possible.When I got pregnant again—when Marco was only three months old, I feared for my life.I feared for my son and what kind of monster this organization would turn him into if I died trying to deliver the next baby.So, I …”

I swallowed as fresh, hot tears sprinted down my cheeks.

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